Sustainable IT | Ted Samson » TAG: Sony

January 14, 2008 | Comments: (0)

IBM, Nokia, and Sony back green-patent giveaway

TAGS: Green technology, IBM, Nokia, Sony

As sustainability continues to percolate in minds of business and technology leaders worldwide, we're witnessing more and more companies stepping up and sharing their resources and brainpower for the greater green good.

The latest example comes from IBM, who has partnered with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development on an initiative to make publicly available a host of donated "environmentally responsible" patents. Nokia, Sony, and Pitney Bowes have thus far joined the cause.

The portfolio of patents, dubbed the Eco-Patent Commons, will "feature innovations focused on environmental matters and innovations in manufacturing or business processes where the solution provides an environmental benefit."

Said benefits might be energy conservation, pollution prevention, usage of environmentally preferable materials, and increased recycling opportunity.

"In addition to enabling new players to engage in protecting the environment, the free exchange of valuable intellectual property will accelerate work on the next level of environmental challenges. We strongly urge other companies to contribute to the Eco-Patent Commons," said Dr. John E. Kelly III, IBM senior VP and director of IBM Research, in a written statement.

As I write this, the Eco-Patent Commons contains 31 patents, 27 of which come from Big Blue (known for cranking out patents like bunnies crank out more bunnies). Those include an "apparatus and method for reusing printed media for printing information" and a "system for cleaning contamination from magnetic recording media rows."

Nokia has one on the list ("systems and methods for recycling of cell phones at the end of life"), as does Sony ("flocculating agent and a method for flocculation"). The other two comes from Pitney Bowes ("ink-jet printer having variable maintenance algorithm" and "multiple overload protection for electronic scales").

These companies are the first IT heavyweights to share their resources toward a common green good. Consider the Green Grid, a nonprofit consortium of tech companies that's focused on developing metrics, standards, and best practices for curbing power consumption.

Moreover, Sun last year unveiled OpenEco.org, an online community providing free tools and resources for calculating, tracking, and comparing greenhouse gas emissions.

Additionally, Cisco has volunteered time and resources to the William J. Clinton Foundation to develop technologies and strategies to help cities reduce their negative impact on the environment.

Additional information about the Eco-Patent commons is available on the WBCSD Web site.

Related links:
Cisco seeds green innovations aimed at climate change
Green Grid announces tech forum in February
Sun launches community for measuring, comparing GHG emissions

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the Sustainable IT blog. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter.

Posted by Ted Samson on January 14, 2008 10:27 AM

July 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Sony hits bottom of Greenpeace eco rankings

TAGS: Apple, Hardware, Nokia, Sony

Despite Sony's consistently poor showings, Greenpeace remains fixated on Apple

Given Greenpeace's seeming obsession with Apple, I'm having an even more difficult time taking the environmental group's ongoing eco-policing of electronic companies seriously.

Greenpeace last week released the latest edition of its "Guide to Greener Electronics," in which it ranks fourteen companies based on particular environmental practices, such as their toxic-chemical policies and recycling programs.

This time around, Sony tumbled to the bottom of the list, down from 11th place. The reason for the drop: Greenpeace says Sony was "penalized for double standards on their waste policies" in terms of individual producer responsibility (IPR), referring to vendors taking responsibility for the environmental impact of their wares instead of expecting customers to do so.

"Sony is a founding member of the European Recycling Platform which supports IPR; however, in the U.S., Sony is part of a coalition that has been opposing producer responsibility and lobbying for U.S. consumers to pay an advanced recycling fee (ARF)," Greenpeace states in the current guide.

Lenovo, which was at the top of the heap last April, is now in third place. "Closer examination of Lenovo's takeback and recycling services has revealed some weaknesses e.g. time-limited takeback in Thailand, therefore Lenovo loses points on that criteria. Lenovo also still fails to score any points for providing models on the market that are free of PVC and BFRs," says the report.

Meanwhile Nokia crept to the No. 1 slot. "Nokia gets top marks for its support for [IPR], (each company should take care of the electronic waste from its own-branded discarded products). But, it loses points for poor reporting on the amounts of discarded mobiles that it recycles as a percentage of past sales."

Yet despite Sony's free-fall to last place, as well as the other changes in the rankings since April, Greenpeace appears utterly fixated on the fact that Apple managed to increase its standing from last place to tenth.

"Clearly, companies are racing to produce greener products" says Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace's toxics campaigner on the Greenpeace Web site. "Steve Job's latest commitment to eliminate toxics materials moved Apple up the chart and they now face a challenge, with the iPhone, to meet customer expectations to be the environmental leader Apple-lovers want."

Notably, Greenpeace has been criticizing Apple for its allegedly poor green practices for quite some time, even going to far as to launch a "Green my Apple" campaign.

So Greenpeace: If you are going to police the environmental practices of companies, I suggest that you be consistent -- if you want your rankings to be taken seriously. Yes, it's good to see that Apple is doing more for Mother Nature, but meanwhile, Sony, by your standards, has continued to slip over the past several months. Should we expect a flashy, targeted marketing campaign drawing attention to Sony?

Or are you determined to continue getting as much mileage as you can breathing down Apple's neck, even though the company ships far fewer products -- and thus has a relatively smaller environmental impact -- than Sony?

Posted by Ted Samson on July 9, 2007 12:37 PM